Another luxury hotel enters the fray

If you thought that the hotel building boom was slowing down anytime soon, it’s not, at least not yet. Birmingham-based Harbert Realty Services and Concord Hospitality Enterprises Co. of Raleigh, N.C. announced a partnership and plans to spend $52 million to renovate the old Regions Plaza building with a “4-diamond quality hotel” this afternoon at a 2 p.m. press conference at Regions Center.

When completed the as of yet unnamed hotel will house 255-rooms and include several features including a full-service restaurant and bar, a coffee shop. It will also add an estimated 12,000 square feet of additional meeting space to the city’s central business district. The project will not be started until the relocation of some 400 Regions Bank employees is complete, most into the larger Regions Center.

Concord Harbert Birmingham Hotel, LLC, the formal partnership announced in today’s press release, estimates that it will start renovations on the 1970’s structure in mid-2008 with a projected 2010 opening. Concord Harbert estimates that the project will provide more than 300 jobs during the construction period with approximately 135 permanent jobs upon opening the property. They will also attempt to qualify for LEED Silver certification for the renovated building.

The project brings the total number of completed or planned luxury hotel projects within Birmingham’s City Center to four, including the recently completed renovation of the Tutwiler Hotel, the recent renovation at the Redmont Hotel and plans for a hotel to occupy the upper stories of a tower being built adjacent to the former Federal Reserve Bank building between 4th and 5th Avenues North along 19th Street North by Melaver, Inc. It seems like the question is not will there be more announcements, but maybe “when?” and “who?”.